Portsmouth FC have teamed up with Final Straw Solent to get ‘Nelson’ the Final Fat Fish, or ‘Nellie’ as she is more affectionately known, to the Pompey v Ipswich game on Saturday.
Nellie will be behind the Fratton End, to raise awareness of the amount of plastics and recyclable waste created on a matchday at Fratton Park and encourage fans to make a more conscious effort to recycle their waste, both in the stadium and at home.
Pompey have recently announced their sustainability initiative to be greener by issuing all of the first team players with reusable water bottles to cut down their usage of single-use plastics at the training ground.
🌍 Find out how #Pompey are doing their bit to help the planet ⬇️#PassOnPlastichttps://t.co/0FiTImcYk1
— Portsmouth FC (@Pompey) October 24, 2019
The club have also installed water fountains for the players to readily refill their bottles, ensuring they stay hydrated during training and stopped using disposable ice bags.
Nellie is a huge metal fish that is transported around the area, visiting festivals, parks and towns with an aim to raise awareness of the sheer volume of disposable plastic bottles that are used.
The idea is simple – Pompey fans can fill Nellie up with their used plastic bottles and recyclable waste on the day to illustrate just how many of these disposable items are used and the huge volume of waste that can be created each matchday.
Centre-back Christian Burgess said: “It’s a big project to reduce waste at the training ground and at Fratton Park on a matchday, but even if every player and fan made one small swap to reduce their usage of single-use plastic and recycle where possible, it will go a long way to improve the environment.”
"If every player and fan made one small swap to reduce their usage of single-use plastic and recycle where possible, it will go a long way to improve the environment.”
Bianca Carr, founder of Final Straw Solent, added: "It’s amazing a business with such an enormous supporter base has chosen to become more environmentally sustainable.
"Not only making positive changes, but also encouraging their fans and other businesses alike to follow suit, is incredible.
"We are honoured to be partnered with them on this initiative and helping make Portsmouth a greener city. Portsmouth, the city by the sea, has always been blue, but now it has a little bit of green mixed in there too.”
Fans are encouraged to do their bit at Saturday's game by filling Nellie up with recyclable waste. For more information on Final Straw Solent, please click here.